The
Currently, the health care system spends as much as $210 billion annually on claims processing, according to the report issued at the AMA's annual meeting. Doctors have long complained about excessive paperwork required to satisfy insurance companies.
"Each insurer uses different rules for processing and paying medical claims, which cause complexity, confusion and waste," former AMA President Dr. Nancy Nielsen said in a statement accompanying the report.
"Simplifying the administrative process with standardized requirements will reduce unnecessary costs in the health system" that often require doctors to file different forms to each insurer, she said.
Among the eight companies,
The overall accuracy rate was 80%, with each 1 percentage point improvement worth $778 million in savings in unnecessary administrative costs, the AMA said.
Still, the AMA said insurers, led by privately owned
All except
Denials of insurance claims remained a sore point for physicians, who called for insurers and employers to provide clarity about what is and is not covered. The percentage of claims denied—usually because of eligibility issues—ranged from 0.7% to 4.5%.
Other companies evaluated were